Savage (Reagan and Kieran) novel Chapter 1

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**This book is the 8th in the Guardian's Next Generation series and 12th in the overall Guardian series. It can be read as a standalone novel, but scenes and historical incidents will be referenced without going into full detail of what happened. It is recommended that you begin the series at the beginning with The Broken Warrior's Daughter.**

Reagan

“Are you excited about your birthday?” my best friend Meadow asks me.

We’re sitting in my bedroom at my parents’ house. We alternate between my house and hers in the city where she lives with her sister, Maeve, and my brother, Xander. It’s a toss up as to which house is more uncomfortable to stay at; mine because you’d think my parents were rabbits instead of werewolves, and Meadow’s because Xander and Maeve just had twins, increasing the size of their family to seven. They’ve only been together three years, but that hasn’t stopped Maeve from pushing out pups as fast as Xander can give them to her. And that doesn’t even include Maeve’s and Meadow’s younger brother, Tate. It’s crowded and loud at her house.

We used to be able to spend time with my brother Cayd who also lives in the city, but now that he’s found his mate, it’s like he and Xander are in a contest to see who can give their mates pups faster.

“In some ways, yes. I mean, it will be nice to find him and share the love that we see with the others.”

“What’s the ‘no’ part of the sentence?” she asks. She’s currently spinning some of her witchy lights around in front of her. She’s been practicing using color and light and blending them together. She’s actually a pretty fantastic witch. Her family is descended from very powerful witches who were murdered because they refused to work for some terrible witch. Somehow, Maeve was able to hide the fact that she was underage, raising her sister and brother alone. That is, until Xander found her. He’d taken her under his protection and therefore the protection of the pack and that’s how I met my bestie. We clicked right away and we’ve never looked back.

I look at her until she focuses on me. “What in the Moon Goddess’ realm would have ever made my dad or Rich think that I would want all this pomp and circumstance for my birthday?” I ask her.

My brother, Rich, has been Alpha of our pack for nearly six years. He’s a great Alpha. It wasn’t a seamless transition into his role, and I know there was a time when my father was ready to take the pack back from him. But he got it together and since then, he and his mate, Emlyn, have run this pack in near perfection.

My father calls Rich and I his bookends, the only two children out of seven that take after him. My other brothers and sisters are very much like our mother, and I have a lot of her traits too, but like Rich, I prefer sparring to putting on fancy clothes.

Even though I’m young, I’m very strong. Part of that is because I am my father’s daughter. But the biggest part of that is because I’m the daughter of a Guardian. My mother’s wolf, Alessia, is blessed by the Moon Goddess with the Guardian spirit. That blessing has passed to all of her daughters and the daughters of the other Guardians, Aunt Grace and Aunt Cara. It makes us stronger than Alphas, including our Alpha brothers who are stronger than most.

“You’re the last available Guardian in this generation, Reagan. You know the history, how Alphas used to force the Guardians into mate bonds to make themselves stronger. And look at your sister and Lily, they’re both queens now, one the Queen of Vampires and the other the Queen of the Fae. Maybe your mate will be a prince or a king and you’ll become a queen too.”

I frown at my friend. “Do you even know me at all?”

She laughs, letting her balls of light spread all over the room. “So, what? You’d prefer a muscle-bound Alpha who is a fighter to some nearly immortal royal?”

The truth is, I don’t really know what I want besides having someone who loves me the way my father loves my mother. I already know that no matter who my mate is, I’ll be stronger than he is, so does it really matter if he’s wolf, vampire, fae, or warlock? Probably not. But for me, I feel drawn to the packs. I like living in the forest, letting my wolf, Alayla, run hard and fast, smelling the scents of the world around us.

“I think I’d prefer a wolf mate. I love forest. I don’t want to leave and I definitely don’t want to live in the city. That place is hideous.”

“So, an Alpha ...” she says, as if thinking. Her lights begin moving again and as I watch, they begin to form the figure of a man, a tall, very muscular man.

“Do you really think that anyone is going to be more muscular than the sons of the Guardians?” I ask her, watching as the muscles on the image continue to increase in size. “Big doesn’t always mean strong, you know,” I tell her.